My darling boyfriend hasn’t yet wished me a happy birthday, but I would like to wish two people with whom I share my birthday with many happy returns. First of all is Lemmy Kilmister, I’m not sure how old he is, he has been rocking his way about for quite a long, long time, Hawkwind and then Motorhead, so if the name doesn’t ring a bell here he is.

“Happy Birthday Lemmy.”

The second person I share my birthday with is Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, 42 today! I do however have a message for Ed, just a few things for him to mull over this festive period.

“Happy Birthday Ed, please remember us ticcers, it’s been a tough year for us and other disabled people what with the recession, ATOS and the changes that the Condemns want to put in place ( The Health & Social Care bill and the Welfare Reform bill). With all these elements in the mix it makes things pretty awful for us, I’m sure your parents have told you about life before they came to live in Britain. I’ve been doing a bit of reading up on Marxism, you describe yourself as a “socialist” but somehow what’s coming out of your mouth in response to Cameron’s evil plans don’t sound very “socialist” to me. Back to my original point, with what’s been happening to us, so many people who are not well enough to work in the eyes of their doctors, are then seen as fit to work by a stranger sitting behind a computer. Can you see the logic in that? Rewind back to when Labour were in Government, this whole ATOS thing was Gordon Brown’s doing, but it’s now that the s**t is now hitting the proverbial fan. But things are going to get worse, if the Welfare Reform bill gets sent back to the House of Commons it would be good if you could go through it again without the rose tinted spectacles and see it for what it really is, in an ideal world we see it as money saving exercise, but some see it as a way of pushing the vulnerable into destitution on the edge of existence, not dissimilar to Germany in the 1930’s. Now you’re an intelligent man, I’m sure you can figure this one out, us ticcers are intelligent people, we can draw little crosses on pieces of paper like anyone else, but considering how you’ve been supporting us lately (urhum, not much) we’re in a bit of a dilemma with regards to placing the little cross. Help us fight our corner and support us a bit better and the cross may move from The Green Party or the Socialist Worker Party back to Labour. I would also suggest you listen to us more, please take on our concerns and be the socialist that you claim to be, even listen to elderly ladies in Llanelli who have excellent ideas about strategies to win over voters.

For everybody else here are some useful and interesting links. First of all an article from the good old Guardian to mull over with a mince pie or few.

The plans for the new Universal Credit have not long come out. So methinks over a glass or two of wine I will figure it out. I will let you know my findings when done. Happy Christmas everyone, eat lots, drink lots and be merry.

Catherine xxx

2 Replies

On Xmas Eve my partner received his Incapacity letter stating that he scored ZERO points and no longer qualifies. What a fab Xmas present. He has had an interview every year he has been on it (even though letters say that people are picked at random!!!) Needless to say he will appeal. If nothing else than to cost them money processing the appeal. A 'friend' who is on Incapacity Works (secretly) and has been allowed more than 15 points and remains on IB. How can that be? When people legitimately are entitled to it but a nurse interviews him and says zero points. Whatever happened to Doctors doing the interviews? This has put serious dampers on our Xmas celebrations.

I hope you and your partner find the link above (the black triangle one) useful as it's for people who've been awarded zero pointsat their WCA. Looks like I've written this post at the right time for you. They are apparently health care proffessionals, the one who did mine was actually a Doctor. She didn't really look at me at all during the assessment, she typed a lot, looked at my form, my meds and letters about apointments.However a friend of mine who has fibromyalgia and injuries from an old bike accident despite the fact that he had surgey about a week ago and has been relying on his daughter to help him and takes a cocktail of meds, he had his assessment with the same woman (???!!!) and he's currently appealing. The WCA doesn't make sense. As soon as the CAB opens after Christmas go and see them.